Q #1,998: Which Cannibal Corpse album turned 20 years old this year?

A.

The fifth Cannibal Corpse studio album ‘Vile’ turned 20 earlier this year, which coincidentally means a joint 20th celebration with vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher in the lineup. Originally titled ‘Created to Kill,’ Cannibal Corpse started recording the album with founding vocalist Chris Barnes before parting ways while in the studio. Corpsegrinder left Monstrosity to join up with ‘Corpse, and re-tracked all the vocals for the record. Monstrosity managed to release ‘Millenium’ in 1996, just mere months after the release of ‘Vile.’ Both albums were recorded at the legendary Morrisound Studios in Tampa, FL, and both were produced by Scott Burns. Burns has produced death metal’s royalty, including (but certainly not limited to) Death’s legendary ‘Human’ release.

The success of this particular Cannibal Corpse record might not have had a massive surging effect on Monstrosity’s release months later, but it got guitarist Pat O’Brien to join as a touring guitarist from 1996 to 1997, and he eventually replace guitarist Rob Barrett, who left after the release of ‘Vile.’ Barret would rejoin the band in 2005, after the departure of founding guitarist Jack Owen. Owen went on to join Deicide, while Barrett would return to join forces with who was originally his replacement.

It’s always a bold move for a band to move on with a different vocalist, and this was no exception. To have recorded an entire album with your founding vocalist, only to bring in a replacement once the majority of the work has been done speaks to the distance between the band and Barnes at the time. They seem to have mutually stated that they had grown apart, and that the band wanted to move forward instead of living in the past with Barnes.

Listening to ‘Vile’ 20 years after its release, it most definitely sounds like the work of a complete band. This was a very convincing effort by a band that believed that they had boundless potential, with a desire to keep pushing forward. Two decades later (and over 2 million albums sold worldwide), these guys are still reinventing ways to implement their brand of devastation.

Q #1,991: #995: 2011’s ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’ is the 8th studio album by what band?

A.

Morbid Angel’s ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’ is the band’s 8th studio album, and the first to see the return of legendary frontman David Vincent. Even though Vincent rejoined the band in 2004, no new Morbid material would surface for seven more years.

Having left after their 1995 release, ‘Domination,’ fans were most certainly hoping for a return to form. While being a band that’s more or less continued to reinvent itself from album to album, Morbid Angel definitely strayed from that path a bit more than expected, and ended up shocking listeners in ways they would never have conjured in their nightmares. I’m not huge into reviews, and perhaps that’s a result of being on the other end of them for years at this point, but the overall response was less than positive. The band incorporated more industrial elements, which shouldn’t be as much of a shock considering David Vincent’s post-departure band was the industrial metal outfit Genitorturers. It’s worth noting that this is his wife’s band, and that in an alternate Spinal Tap universe, David Vincent could have brought his wife into Morbid Angel to indulge in all of their industrial tendencies.

Still, the inclusion of such elements on a Morbid Angel album went over about as well as you could expect from the purists. I’d venture to say that after nearly 20 years, you probably shouldn’t expect a replicant album from a band that established itself by evolving and setting the bar for all those that would dare to follow. Even the return of Carcass with ‘Surgical Steel’ wasn’t met entirely with parades and praise, though I’m sure more than a few Morbid Angel fans would’ve preferred a sequel to one of their favorite albums… even if they would’ve still hated it.

Another potential mishap on the side of “hype,” is that longtime Morbid Angel drummer Pete ‘The Feet’ Sandoval was unable to complete ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’ due to back injuries. His replacement, and subsequently the only other drummer to appear on a Morbid release, was Tim Yeung. From Hate Eternal to Decrepit Birth, to Dino Cazares’ Divine Heresy, Yeung is blazingly fast behind the kit. Add his presence to the return of David Vincent, and it’s no big surprise that fans were expecting a different record.

If you are ever trying to keep track of where a Morbid Angel album lands within the band’s discography, all you have to remember our modern alphabet. The first letter of every album follows in order of release, starting with ‘Altars of Madness,’ ‘Blessed are the Sick,’ and the list continues. The wild card is the live album, ‘Entangled in Chaos,’ otherwise the studio albums jump from ‘Domination’ to ‘Formulas Fatal to the Flesh,’ which really drives home the letter F.

All of this is just asking to be parodied on a death metal themed Sesame Street. And with that, here is Bert and Ernie’s drum audition for Morbid Angel. I heard they didn’t get the gig because the band didn’t want to go the Slipknot route employing multiple drummers.

A.

Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ is perhaps one of the most historically revered metal albums ever to be released. Having been certified 6X Platinum by the RIAA in the United States (and their first Gold record), their third studio album has continually received similar accolades around the world. Sadly, it’s the last studio album with bassist Cliff Burton, who passed away on September 27th, 1986 while the band was traveling in Sweden while touring in support of this album.

The album was recorded with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark. Metallica wanted to up their production game, and take their songs to another level after their previous two successful albums. They entered the studio with much of the album completed in high grade demo form, and only did minimal arrangement work to the songs in the studio. Despite taking longer than expected to complete the recording, the band was not hung up on writing, just the execution of the material.

For an album that has become so important to influence and shape generations of metal musicians and fans alike, not everyone was as keen on the release when it came out in 1986. Yes, it seems that purists were a thing before that giant megaphone called the Internet! Spin Magazine tipped their hat to the band’s production and experimentation, but ultimately felt it was a disappointment. There is no truth, however, to the rumor that that particular reviewer is now on a bowling team with the visionary who said the Beatles would never amount to anything, or the folks who said the iPod would flop.

Aside from the millions of records sold, and the inclusion on a massive amount of “Best of” lists, the United States Library of Congress recently added the album to be preserved in its National Recording Registry. Less than 500 albums have ever been included, and Metallica is the very first of any metal-leaning acts.

The focus of today’s Moment Of Metal was the song ‘Disposable Heroes,’ which opened Side B of the album and punches you right in the face. The opening riffs compounded by some thunderous drums, really stand out on an album full of greatest hits material. The sound of the track really captures the essence of the vocal passages, where the two seem to really gel and help create more of a sonic landscape as opposed to music juxtaposed to lyrics.

At some point over the years I remember hearing that a bridge section of ‘Disposable Heroes’ was removed and ended up being used in ‘Battery.’ Maybe I heard this at the same conspiracy theorist convention where Dave Mustaine previously laid claim to parts of ‘Leper Messiah.’

There was even a conversation between Lars Ulrich and Rush legend Geddy Lee about working together, before the release of ‘Master of Puppets.’ So there is an astronomical butterfly effect – would ‘Master of Puppets’ have tanked with Lee at the helm? Would the band’s already progressive tendencies on the record have been overly indulged, or mastered? Could Geddy Lee have been to Metallica what Steven Wilson was to Opeth on ‘Blackwater Park?’